Japan Firm Electronic Materials Demand

Japanese electronic materials demand has kept firm since summer in 2005. The automotive demand increases recently along with active shipment for digital appliances, cell phone and personal computer. The firm demand is expected to continue until October. Machinery electric wire demand is firm for digital appliances, personal computer and amusement equipments. The shipment increased by 15% to 5,153 tonnes in copper in April from a year earlier, which exceeded 5,000 tonnes for 2 months in a row, according to report covering around domestic 140 makers by Japanese Electric Wire & Cable Makers’ Association. However, the electric wire shipment in March and April apparently included inventory building demand with expectation for higher copper price. The electric wire makers for machinery are suffered from higher cost of copper and coating materials especially for recent 2-3 months when they cannot increase the selling price smoothly. The makers’ less profitability could accelerate the tight supply. Supply of electrolytic copper foil, which is material for printed circuit board, gets tighter. The supply cannot meet the firm demand though the makers of Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Nippon Mining & Metals and Furukawa Circuit Foil keep full capacity operations. They have kept full capacity operations since July 2005 when the applications expand for flat screen television and digital versatile disc player along with traditional cell phone and personal computer. The foil supply is tight for every applications and the demand started to increase for thicker foil with more than 35 micrometers thick for automobile since April 2006. The demand is expected to keep firm at least to October. The major 3 electrolytic copper foil makers announced another price hike in June and most of the users accepted the higher price under firm demand.